OF THE COUNTY OF DOWN. 7 



an underftratum of rock or gravel, the moifture eva- 

 porates fpeedily. Inftances, and thofe not a few, 

 might be produced of its falubrity, from the longevity 

 of many of its natives, to which the hitherto conflant 

 fupply of fuel from the numerous, though not exten- 

 five turf-bogs, with which the country is flrewed, mull 

 greatly contribute. But, notwithflanding what has 

 been faid of the general wholefomenefs of this climate, 

 the obfervation of a celebrated Irifh phyfician feems to 

 be founded in fa6t, that a long courfe of dry weather 

 in fummer, or of frofts in winter, are produ&ive of 

 diforders. After a continuance of fuch weather, low 

 fevers are more common, than in the ufual moift ftate 

 of the air, to which the conftitutions of the inhabitants 

 feem habituated, and to whofe health a certain portion, 

 probably, is neceffary. With refpeft to the fruits of 

 the earth, extremes, either of wet or dry weather, 

 feem to be unfavourable, as the years of 1799 and 

 1800 were equally unproductive; the crops of both 

 years not equalling that of 1801, which feems to have 

 enjoyed that happy medium of wet and dry, fo favour- 

 able to vegetation. 



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SECT. 4. Soil and Surface. 



IN a country of fuch extent as the county of Down, 

 a great difference of foils mart be expefted; and, in 



reality, 



